An open-source tool called nxnative allows Nintendo Switch games to run natively on Apple Silicon devices without traditional emulation. Developed by seedds, the utility converts a user’s game files and decryption keys into standalone applications for iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
YouTuber Andrew Tsai tested the software on a base fanless M1 MacBook Air with 8GB RAM, where Monster Hunter Rise held a locked 60FPS. Titles like Unicorn Overlord, Dragon Quest XI S, and Dark Souls Remastered booted successfully, though Doom Eternal didn’t work.
Because the Switch and Apple chips share the Arm64 architecture, nxnative translates game code to run directly on Apple hardware. It swaps Nintendo’s Horizon OS for a lightweight host environment and rebuilds the console’s NVN graphics API on top of Metal. The core of this tool is d2r-mobile, a tool created to run Diablo II: Resurrected natively on iOS, macOS, Android, and HarmonyOS. Moreover, nxnative uses other developers tools, including Ryujinx’s shader translator, Yuzu’s Maxwell instruction encodings, and many others.
According to the project repository, roughly 70 games have been tested so far. Hardware targets focus on the iPhone 15 Pro or newer and M1-equipped iPads, with Mac builds requiring an additional compilation step. Neither online play nor amiibo functionality is supported.
KitGuru says: Do you think projects like nxnative will manage to stay clear of Nintendo’s legal radar?
